An antiquated rule claims another scalp in Australia’s parliament
How many more MPs will turn out to be ineligible because they are dual nationals?
WHERE will it end? On October 27th the High Court stripped four senators and an MP of their seats, adopting a strict interpretation of the rules on eligibility for parliament. The MP was Barnaby Joyce, the deputy prime minister, whose ejection has cost the government its majority in the lower house. Then on November 1st Stephen Parry, the president of the Senate, announced that he, too, suffered from the same affliction: he was a dual national, able to claim British citizenship as well as Australian. He resigned the following day.
This article appeared in the Asia section of the print edition under the headline “Ignorance is no excuse”
Asia November 4th 2017
From the November 4th 2017 edition
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The Adani scandal takes the shine off Modi’s electoral success
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Priyanka Gandhi: dynastic scion, and hope of India’s opposition
Poised to enter parliament, she may have bigger ambitions than that
The Caspian Sea is shrinking rapidly
This has big implications for Russia, which has come to rely on Central Asian ports
Racial tensions boil over in New Zealand
A controversial bill regarding Maori people punctures its relative harmony
Once a free-market pioneer, Sri Lanka takes a leap to the left
A new president with Marxist roots now dominates parliament too
The mystery of India’s female labour-force participation rate
A good news story? Maybe